


Fixing It

by Ashtiel



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, It's really just fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-08 02:03:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4286487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashtiel/pseuds/Ashtiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronan messes up. He's not sure how to fix it, until he is.</p>
<p>"He didn’t have fancy words like Gansey's, or eyes that begged for forgiveness like Adam’s, but he had this. He could do this."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fixing It

**Author's Note:**

> For [Kat](http://princessofthehellmouth.tumblr.com/).

Everyone was acutely aware that Ronan had fucked up. Silence smashed into the room, ripping their conversation to pieces as Adam flew off the edge of Ronan’s chair, his hand sweeping up to guard his deaf ear.

“Shit,” Ronan said, his slouch snapping away in an instant as his spine turned into a steel rod.

It was painfully easy to see Adam’s ragged breaths through the worn fabric of his t-shirt. He was blinking rapidly, trying to banish something that none of the rest of them could see, but all of them could guess at.

“Sorry,” he said. He lowered his hand. It was shaking.

“Shit,” Ronan said again. But he didn’t apologize. He was the expert on dark things that lurked in the recesses of people’s minds, and he knew that words wouldn’t banish them. Words were useless.

Adam sat on the edge of Gansey’s bed and slowly started to sink into its soft folds. Gradually, the conversation picked back up. Blue turned to Noah and asked him a question. Noah replied. Gansey chuckled at whatever he said. But the carefree mood was ruined.

Blue took her leave a half an hour later, and Noah vanished with her. Adam was on his feet before the door closed behind them.

“I should get home. I have to work in the morning.” Working hadn’t stopped Adam from staying late in a long time.

Gansey reached out to brush his hand against Adam’s shoulder. Adam only tolerated it for a few seconds before he stepped away. Gansey tried to smile at him, but Adam only had to glance at the expression before he turned and fled out the door. A few seconds later, Ronan heard the engine of his piece-of-shit car sputter to life, then fade into the dim roar that was Henrietta.

“Damn it.” Ronan said.

Gansey sighed. They’d been doing so well, considering they were all as good as ticking time bombs.

“We always have tomorrow.”

“Fuck that.”

“Ronan-”

“Dick.” Ronan jabbed his hands into his pockets.

Gansey sighed again.

Ronan stomped into his room and slammed his door behind him. In his wake, it felt like the whole of Monomouth shook on its foundations.

Ronan kicked his boots off and ripped his black tank-top over his head. Chainsaw squawked at him, but he ignored her. Damn it! Everything he touched turned to shit. He hadn’t been thinking. Adam’s hair had looked so soft, and the path from the back of his neck to his hairline had seemed simple. Only, there was that fucking reminder in the way. A souvenir from all the shit that Adam had gone through, the shit that Ronan couldn’t save him from. The one place that Ronan wasn’t allowed to touch, and he’d danced right over it.

It wasn’t surprising to Ronan that it was impossible for him to sleep. Every time he closed his eyelids, Adam flinched away from him, hate sparking in his blue eyes. It was torture. Ronan kept picking up his phone and setting it back down on his nightstand. He hated phones, but he hated not knowing what to say, not knowing how to fix things, even more. Hate was filling him, and he was going to drown it it.

As the hours ticked past, Ronan considered drinking himself into oblivion or taking one of the pills Kavinsky had left him. But he would only dream of Adam, a happy, unbroken Adam, and that was worse. So, as dawn started to seep into the sky, Ronan climbed out of bed and grabbed his keys.

Gansey was awake too. He was slowly reconstructing the Henrietta that had once taken up about a fourth of the floor and now only took up a sixteenth. He was on alert as soon as Ronan slipped out of his bedroom.

“Have you been drinking?” he asked.

“Why do you always assume I’ve been drinking?”

“Because you usually have been.”

“No.”

That seemed to throw Gansey for a loop. He blinked at Ronan, then he blinked at the keys in Ronan’s hands. “Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“You’re not going to race.” It wasn’t a demand, but it wasn’t quite a question either. It sounded like hope and dread mixed into a drink with an umbrella.

“No. Jesus.”

As the puzzle pieces slotted into place, Gansey rose from his little town like a titan rising from his throne. “Adam.”

Ronan’s mind scrambled for a barb to throw back, but he swallowed it, and it burned all the way down. He just nodded.

“I’m coming with you.” Another not-question cocktail.

Ronan nodded again. He stalked out to his BMW with Gansey, struggling into a sweatshirt, on his heels.

The ride to St. Agnes was quiet. Not a good quiet or a bad one. A waiting quiet. Ronan put his hand on the back of Gansey’s neck. The contact was grounding, real. Good. Ronan drove with one hand, but he obeyed almost all the rules of the road for Gansey’s sake. With every block they drove, Ronan felt his shoulders relax as his stomach twisted.

Ronan didn’t knock on Adam’s door. Which, in hindsight, might’ve been a good idea.

As soon as Ronan stepped on a creaky spot on the old floor, Adam was out of bed, fists raised in front of his bleary face. Ronan was torn between being proud of him for remembering the fighting stance he’d taught him and being furious that Adam had to have such a fast reaction time.

“Ronan?” Adam slurred as his eyes adjusted to the dim room. He lowered his fists. “Gansey? What’re you doing-”

And then Ronan stepped forward and wrapped his muscular arms around Adam.

Adam stiffened and flushed, but Gansey just looked on with a smile. Adam glared at him over Ronan’s shoulder.

“What’s-”

Ronan tightened his grip, squeezing the words (but not the breath), out of Adam. Then, pushed him backwards as gently as possible, until his legs were pressing against the bed. And then he pushed a little harder. They toppled onto the tiny mattress. Ronan manhandled him until Adam’s head was resting on his bare chest and his legs were tangled with Ronan’s own. As soon as everything was how he wanted it, Ronan closed his eyes.

He could feel Gansey and Adam’s eyes on him, but he didn’t give a fuck. He didn’t have fancy words like Gansey’s, or eyes that begged for forgiveness like Adam’s, but he had this. He could do this.

Adam slowly became a toasted marshmallow against his side, melting into his embrace. His breathing was slow and even, and Ronan could feel his strong, steady heartbeat against his side.

The floor creaked again. Ronan and Adam both opened their eyes. Gansey flashed them a guilty smile.

“Sorry, I-”

Ronan scooted the bundle that was Adam and himself over to the very edge of the mattress and stared back at Gansey.

Gansey straightened, all his etiquette lessons rushing back to him. “Really, I-”

Ronan locked eyes with him, and, very slowly said, “Shut the fuck up.”

Gansey hovered. Adam blinked at him. “My back’s cold,” he suggested.

And that solved the problem. Gansey kicked off his obnoxious TopSiders and climbed into bed behind Adam. Ronan hooked a leg around his, and pulled him into their s’more.

They all pretended to sleep for awhile. No one wanted to rip the wings off whatever fragile thing had taken to the air.

Finally, Adam took a deep breath, and pushed himself up on his elbows. He looked down at Ronan and frowned in his somehow-elegant way. “Listen, Ronan-”

“No.”

Gansey tried to muffle a snort as Adam narrowed his eyes.

“What?”

“I said no. I know where this is going, and there’s nothing to say.”

“Yes there is. I-”

Ronan’s midnight blue eyes glinted. “No.”

Adam huffed and opened his mouth again, but Ronan knocked his arms out from beneath him so that he landed square on Ronan’s chest. Ronan leaned up, until his mouth was almost touching Adam’s good ear.

“Adam,” he huffed. “Shut the fuck up.”

And he did.

**Author's Note:**

> This's my first Raven Cycle fic! If you have any suggestions or notice any errors, please drop me a comment. Thanks, and have a lovely day.


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